to be pretty sure this is the wrong way around?! Washing-up scuzziness/cleanliness

[LRDtheFeministDragon]

Disclaimer: Yes, I have a full and exciting life, but I don't want to make you feel jealous, so instead of telling you all about it, I shall instead make up a totally banal and boring problem so that you may feel patronizing towards me instead. Or, alternatively, so you may judge me and my extended family as scuzzy dirtbags.

Anyway:

My parents wash up by running a bowl of hot soapy water and washing everything in there. DH and I wash up by putting soap on a cloth and washing each item under hot running water, then rising the soap off. When mum say me do it my way (out of habit) she wrinkled her nose and commented 'I don't know how you think you get things clean like that!'. Mate came over today and commented the same thing, although she runs a bowl of hot soapy water and rinses each item in hot water after it has been washed in the bowl.

Which of us is right, O wise and slightly bored ones? Is there some kind of lurgy you can get by never fully immersing your crockery in hot water, as my mum obviously believes? Or is everything she washes going to taste of fairy (not that I've actually noticed this, but I want moral high ground, please)?

Buy a dishwasher maybe?

Yes to the dishwasher.

Lick 'em clean?

That would deprive my mum of the great pleasure she gets in telling me I'm doing it wrong.

Bowl full of water (and washing up liquid) babys bottles first, then cups/glasses, then cutlery, then plates then pans and casserols dishes (so from cleanest to dirtiest. Put on draining board for dp to dry up (i hate drying)

i use a dishwasher! chuck pretty much everything in, life is too short to wash dishes in a sink

Now, I do the bowl of hot/soapy water BUT if I'm feeling a bit meh and want it done quickly (?) I keep the tap running and use the dishcloth/Fairy liquid and then run under tap.

No idea why I think the latter is a quicker way of doing it - takes the same time as using a bowl.

I also leave the dirtiest dishes until last eg the roasting pan is the last to be washed. There is also at least 2 changes of water, dependent on how much there is to wash.

Not sure if YA/YANBU - but I'm bored too so thought I'd join in

Mum would like you, zelda. Plenty of room for getting it wrong if you actually devise an order-of-washing too.

oh and if I could afford/had room for a dishwasher then I'd have one in the blink of an eye

We wash up the same way you do.

Therefore you are right

It's comparable to the bath v shower argument.

rhonda - good good.

It's strange isn't it - 'I'm wasting water, I must be doing it fast'. Me too.

Surely you must use loads of water your way? I think it is easier to have a bowl of hot soapy water as things can have a time to soak before you clean them.

I got a gavel! Yay!

From what I know about food hygiene, I'd say a good soak in hot water would do more to eliminate germs etc. than running under a hot tap... but if you haven't had dysentery/e-coli/salmonella yet it's probably ok and you may as well do it the way you prefer. But heat kills bugs so the longer they are hot the better. Fairy just breaks down the fat & grease... might even be doing some good as part of a calorie-controlled diet ;)

Dragon I have had EXACTLY the same with my mum. My answer? Ignore her and carry on doing what you are doing. I think it is a generational thing, back to when hot water was a scarce resource. I have no idea how they can think it is cleaner.

yep "if I wash quicker I'll waste less water"

It's nice to know I'm not the only one who's completely insane

jelly - pans with crusty burned bits get to soak first.

I always run hot water in sink and get the scummy bits off first (any sauce/gravy debris etc) and give pots a once over with the scourer

Then clean hot water with wu liquid, and onto drainer. Cups mugs and glasses get a rinse under the tap before going on drainer to get rid of bubbles

The excitement is overwhelming!

Cousin of mine is a surgeon. Is not unheard of, apparently, to open up someone's pipes to find some with soap suds in.

I wash like you now as a result, but I use a sponge/brillo combi cos I think they're better. Always, always rinse.

Don't want bubbles in my tubes Thanks Very Much

I prefer doing it in a bowl. It just feels cleaner! I think my feeling is that if I miss a spot, then at least having soaked it for a while it's likely to have come off, and also that under running water the water splashes back at you and that REALLY annoys me.

DP keeps trying to get me to wash things as I go, one at a time, but I hate that.

I'm with your mate

And I have a dishwasher

Ahh ... thanks euro, I hadn't actually thought there was logic to what she was doing at all, so thanks for making a serious answer to a silly question!

Yes and it seems such a waste of water and washing up liquid.

Bowl of hot soapy water then glasses, cutlery, crockery (cleanest to dirtiest), pans/casserole dishes.

And change the water when needed.

(Actually, I generally only do glasses, some cutlery and some cooking pots because we have a dishwasher.)

I'm not of an older generation Just have a weird thing about waste.